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Where did all the public bathrooms go?

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Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#141

Post by Gigachad »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #55
strbean wrote: post #20

I was in France recently and used a public restroom. It had an attendant, and a fee of €0.50. Charging for the restroom is unfortunate, but this setup is certainly better than eliminating public restrooms entirely.

The 50 cents is dual purpose, the one is obvious in that it pays for the attendant and them keeping it clean, but the other is like using a coin to unlock a trolley, it cuts back misuse by a lot. Once you've been to free vs 50 cent toilets a few times you'll see (and smell) the difference.

In Australia all toilets are free and they are mostly in great condition. I was surprised visiting Italy and having to pay money for some of the worst maintained toilets I’d seen.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#142

Post by qurren »

pyreko wrote: post #133
mstaoru wrote: post #94

This really hits home. As a person with IBS I basically cannot peacefully go outside in EU. I lived for many years in China and Thailand, and toilets are free, clean, and plentiful there, and you can easily ask any place to use their toilet - there's no stigma. I even had to run into a police station in rural China once. They were 100% chill about it, though they had to unlock a gate for me. Xi Jinping really will be…

> China > toilets are... clean Okay I'm going to have to say that this _really_ depends on where you are. Sometimes, yes, especially newer buildings, but man I have seen some horrors there in the past few years when it comes to bathrooms in terms of cleanliness and smell (the frequent smoking in a lot of bathrooms doesn't help). This is coming from someone primarily experiencing Canadian and American bathrooms, for r…

> _really_ depends on where you are

That kinda applies to anywhere in the world. On the average, I've seen much cleaner toilets in first-tier China cities than first-tier US cities.

And much more accessible as well. Free public toilets literally everywhere. All over the city, in every shopping center, in every coffee shop. And you don't need to buy a coffee and trash it to use them.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#143

Post by alexjplant »

xienze wrote: post #117
deepsun wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong about syringe disposal? A significant portion of population has diabetes. And even if a drug addict uses it, still better than throwing to the trash, similar to how cigarette disposals are mandatory in typical airplanes.

> What's wrong about syringe disposal? A significant portion of population has diabetes. Ask yourself if that's truly what motivated those being installed... > And even if a drug addict uses it, still better than throwing to the trash The problem is they still throw their needles all over the ground. As is typical, the intentions are noble, but what ends up happening is people who can't even be bothered to not shoot…

I looked into this a while back (~6 years ago) and it basically broke down like this: diabetics outnumber injectable drug users two to one but not all diabetics use injectable insulin and the ones that do are more likely to do so at home. Drug users, however, have less compunction about sticking themselves in a public space, particular the homeless. Best guess based on these numbers is that it's a 50-50 split between these populations as to who's using public sharps containers.

> society's tacit approval to do what they're doing, thus accelerating the societal rot.

This argument could be made about providing drugs themselves but fails under the faintest scrutiny for sharps containers because said containers have wide uses beyond shooting up heroin.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#144

Post by ipdashc »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #23
polski-g wrote: post #6

Downstream of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...

Fascinating stuff. And what a logo. > Starting a national crusade to cast away coin-operated commodes, Gessel told newsmen, "You can have a fifty-dollar bill, but if you don't have a dime, that metal box is between you and relief." I'm sympathetic to this argument. Carrying around loose change with US-style billfold wallets has never been convenient, and back in the day you'd often find yourself without change for a…

> Today, though, almost everyone carries either a contactless credit card or a phone with an NFC wallet. I would pay $0.25 for access to a clean public toilet if I could swipe one of those instead of having to carry change.

This is one of those things that gets ruined by credit card transaction fees though, right?

It is kinda depressing that after all these fintech companies and society's ~decade long scam-filled obsession with cryptocurrency, we still don't really have a good solution for microtransactions. Credit card companies still take that fixed fee everywhere, right?

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#145

Post by brap »

lukan wrote: post #126
strbean wrote: post #20

I was in France recently and used a public restroom. It had an attendant, and a fee of €0.50. Charging for the restroom is unfortunate, but this setup is certainly better than eliminating public restrooms entirely.

As the result will be shit and piss elsewhere in the open, a compromise could be having shitty free public toilets and nice toilets where you pay (or maybe not nice, but bearable). The alternative would be social workers, more psychotherapists, free healthcare, ...

Surely more social workers will stop people from pissing on the floor

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#146

Post by michaelt »

mcbuilder wrote: post #124
urbnspacecowboy wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The law determines that public space can't be used for any sexual activity. Follow-up question: Does an enclosed stall count as "public space"?

If I'm about to step into it 5 seconds after you leave, yes it does.

And yet when I want to do some photography, as is my right in public spaces, everyone gets all indignant.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#148

Post by warkdarrior »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #23
polski-g wrote: post #6

Downstream of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...

Fascinating stuff. And what a logo. > Starting a national crusade to cast away coin-operated commodes, Gessel told newsmen, "You can have a fifty-dollar bill, but if you don't have a dime, that metal box is between you and relief." I'm sympathetic to this argument. Carrying around loose change with US-style billfold wallets has never been convenient, and back in the day you'd often find yourself without change for a…

> Today, though, almost everyone carries either a contactless credit card or a phone with an NFC wallet. I would pay $0.25 for access to a clean public toilet if I could swipe one of those instead of having to carry change.

Nowadays it'd be $5.25 per use, plus tip (22% or more).

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#149

Post by freetime2 »

Public toilets are one thing that I really appreciate about living in Japan. It seems like you're never too far away from a toilet - whether it be in a neighborhood park, a roadside parking area, train station, convenience store, etc. And they tend to be pretty clean (at least as far as public restooms go), not something that I dread using like I do many public restrooms in the US.

Japan seems to be just about a best-case scenario, due to the ubiquity of convenience stores, the government's seemingly high prioritization of building and maintaining public toilets, and a culture which places a high value on cleanliness.

It seems like it would be hard to replicate in countries that lack clean and plentiful public toilets without changing the culture first. But reading another comment it sounds like China has made great strides in improving the state of their public toilets due to a strong push from leadership. So it is possible, but again it would start with actually wanting to improve things.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#150

Post by markdown »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #125

Interesting. And quite sad - we definitely should invest in things that make people lives better all around. There are countries were public bathrooms are everywhere - New Zealand is a good example. As a tourist, you're never too far from one. Which is good, since quite often that may be the only human made thing, surrounded by beautiful nature.

I visited Hollywood Boulevard once. That was nuts. No public toilets anywhere, in one of the most famous tourist attractions in the country. Worse, food establishments won't let you use the restroom, claiming they have none or that it was out of order.

Thankfully I found one in a cinema.

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